Navigating Peri-Menopause Well

Did you know that women have estrogen receptors all throughout our bodies with a particular abundance of estrogen receptors in the brain?

While hot flushes and night sweats get a lot of media coverage when talking about menopause, when the sex hormones (oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone) start to decline, often the first symptoms that women experience include generalized anxiety, insomnia, brain fog, fatigue and mood changes.

Another aspect of perimenopause that hasn’t had a lot of air time is the way women’s metabolism and insulin sensitivity (response to sugar) changes with the reduction in hormones.

All of the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause are very treatable, and you don’t need to wait until you’re having hot flushes and have got a script for HRT (hopefully bio-identical hormones) before you can start mitigating some of the symptoms of perimenopause.

Given that your adrenal glands also produce these hormones, one of the best ways that women can help ourselves in the lead up to, and during perimenopause, is to support our adrenal glands. One of the important ways we can do this is by reducing cortisol, our stress hormone, which is also produced by the adrenal glands. Cortisol requires the same precursor (a molecule called pregnenalone) as our sex hormones and if our adrenal glands are busy making cortisol in response to stress then there will be less of this precursor for making our other hormones.

Reducing stress may seem easier said than done, however there are some great tools for helping to support your body in maintaining calm, including:

gentle and supportive daily movement, particularly yoga

gargling, humming and singing

time in nature and/or gardening

5 minutes of diaphramatic deep breathing per day

diffuse a relaxing essential oil such as lavender or bergamot

meditation, mindfullness and gratitude.

There are specific vitamin, minerals and herbal medicines that I recommend for adrenal support during perimenopause.

Exercise for a Healthy Menopause 

There’s no shortage of good reasons to be physically active. If you’re approaching menopause, there’s even more. Physical activity can trigger positive hormonal changes that directly reduce the number and severity of hot flushes, improve mood, and enhance sleep. It supports cognitive strength, too, while boosting your stamina and enhancing your quality of life. In addition medical conditions that often pop up with perimenopause, such as insulin resistance and metabolic issues, can be reduced or even reversed by exercising. 

A time to nurture yourself

Menopause is not only a time of vulnerability and adjustment, but also of opportunity. Taking better care of our nervous systems, stress response and blood sugar balance during these years will serve both to bring the symptoms of menopause under and control and to dramatically reduce any potential risk of further issues. Be reassured that once hormones settle down after menopause, mood fluctuations tend to stabilize and often women report that they’re happier post menopause than they were before menopause.